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Editing

Short stories aren't only a genre and craft unto themselves, but they are also a fantastic means to practice new story elements. For example, if you know that your novel needs to have a bit of suspense in it, you can practice writing suspense in short stories. If your novel will take a dark turn, … Continue reading Writing Tip: Short Stories

Yes, it's the last week of Nano, the last Wednesday of NaNo, and today is the penultimate DAY of NaNo. And I'm a winner! YES! I did it! I completed 50,000 words in a month. Two years in a row. Pretty cool. This last week went pretty well until I hit a major editing wall … Continue reading NaNoWriMo: 4 Week Update (Final one!)

Another week has passed! And I am behind. I had a few days this past week where I wasn't able to do much writing at all because of, you know, life happening. I fell to 4,011 words down over the weekend and have been slogging to try to make those words up. My goal for … Continue reading NaNoWriMo: 2 Week Update

Hey Everybody! One week of NaNoWriMo is over already! I've been disciplining myself to write every day, and as of yesterday, I am entirely caught up with the recommended word count in order to win NaNo, which if you don't remember, is achieving 50,000 words. I tipped over 11,000 words yesterday and these are some … Continue reading NaNoWriMo: 1 week update

It's here. National Novel Writing Month and I've been saving writing this post until this morning so that I can, in fact, use these words toward my NaNo goal. For those who don't know, what IS NaNoWriMo? At its basic core, it's a writing challenge - write 50k words during the month of November. Yes, … Continue reading Happy NaNoWriMo!!

The best and most efficient way to improve your writing is.... To help others with theirs. This may feel counterintuitive if your life looks anything like mine (busy from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep). However, I believe that helping other writers only makes YOU a better writer. I … Continue reading Writing Tip: Helping Others

Yesterday, I shared with you my process of editing. Or at least a proposed process that I've decided on based upon my previous editing experiences. I'll start here by talking about what editing a pantsed novel is and what it isn't. To begin, editing a pantsed novel is not a minor project. Because you've been … Continue reading Pantsing a Novel: Editing

Hey! I hope you had a chance to check out yesterday's video, Beta Readers Part 1, where I talked a little bit about betas. Today, I'm going to break down my own beta reading process for you. I stole the basic premise from author Jenna Moreci, but I clearly like people even less than she … Continue reading Beta Reader Process

So you've written your study, you've had some people read through it, you've gotten their feedback, and... now what? Incorporating alpha feedback should be rather painless, to be honest. For one, there isn't that much of it. And two, the things they are looking for are the things you suspected to be wrong anyway. I … Continue reading Incorporating alpha reader feedback

I've mentioned on and off these creatures called alpha and beta readers. What are they and what do they do? In yesterday's video, I talked a bit about alpha readers. I want to dive in a little deeper to the role of alpha readers, the kinds of questions you'd want to ask them, and how … Continue reading Alpha readers and your Bible study